KOREAN SWEET POTATOES

Young Joni—minneapolis, MN

A FACT: Chefs cannot resist sweet potatoes. Show a chef a sweet potato, and they’ll show you a dozen spicy, smoky, fatty, acidic things they’d like to paint all over this sugar-andstarch canvas. And when this is done right, in the hands of a chef like James Beard Award winner Ann Kim of Young Joni in Minneapolis, the sweet potato becomes more than itself. Her wood-roasted wedges of ivory sweets rise from a shmear of tangy, scallion crème fraîche. Thin slices of pickled Fresno chiles bring sharpness and the perfect measure of heat. A fistful of bonito flakes, dancing like embers against the warmth of the potatoes, introduces an unusual, irresistible marine umami. Kim’s sweet potatoes may ruin you for all others. youngjoni.com